Six Banks, One House

Irving Fryar, once the first overall pick in the 1984 NFL draft and a receiver for the Patriots, Dolphins, Eagles and Redskins, had become pastor of the New Jerusalem House of God in New Jersey. A mortgage broker named William Barksdale testified that Fryar asked him for about $500,000 and that they agreed to use the Willingboro home of Fryar's mother, Allene McGhee, as collateral. The trick, Barksdale explained, was to close several home-equity loans on the same house within days, before any lender could see the others' liens being recorded. Between November 2009 and January 2010 McGhee obtained six home-equity lines from six different banks, all secured by the one property, totalling $616,617. Her applications were backed by a W-2 and pay stubs showing $87,532 a year from Fryar's church; an accountant testified the church had no employees. Pay-off cheques of roughly $800,000 went into an account of Barksdale's company, over which Fryar had the say on how the money was used; from there $120,000 went to a business partner of Fryar's, $106,000 repaid the man who had fronted the down payment on Fryar's house, and other sums went to Fryar directly or into joint accounts he held with his mother. Fryar and his mother were charged with conspiracy and theft by deception; Barksdale, serving a reduced federal sentence under a cooperation deal, was the State's key witness. Neither Fryar nor his mother testified; the defence attacked Barksdale as a liar buying his way out of prison.